Preview of Member Only Content

Just after Christmas, the commander responsible for the detainees and detention camps at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, issued an order requiring inspection of all written attorney-client legal mail between defense counsel and their clients facing military commissions proceedings. Mail and other written communications are now and will be inspected by a team of military intelligence officers or civilian contractors for “classified” information.

Defense counsel strenuously objected to this invasion of the attorney-client privilege. On Jan. 8, the military commissions chief defense counsel, Marine Col. Jeffrey P. Colwell, sent an email to his defense teams advising them that the JTF (Joint Task Force) orders “compel you to unlawfully reveal information related to the representation of a client in violation of [military] Rule for Professional Conduct 1.6(a).”